Catholic Schools and Bad Behavior. NBER Working Paper.

This study used data from Wave 1 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to analyze the impact of Catholic school attendance on the likelihood of teens participating in 13 risky behaviors (e.g., using or selling drugs, committing property crime, having sex, engaging in gang-related fights, attempting suicide, and running away from home). The study focused on the Catholic school-public school distinction. Data analysis indicated that, controlling for a host of personal and family background characteristics (e.g., family supervision and degree of teenager's risk aversion), and adjusting for the endogeneity of sector choice, there was no evidence that Catholic schooling led to a lower incidence of these risky behaviors among teenagers than public schooling. (Contains 37 references.) (SM)